The estate of MF Doom has negotiated a settlement with Temu to end a trademark lawsuit over counterfeit merch on the Chinese discount storefront.
In a joint court notice on Thursday (June 18), obtained by Billboard, lawyers for both MF Doom’s family and Temu say they’ve “reached a settlement in principle” and plan to finalize the agreement within two months. Deal terms are not disclosed in the filing. A lawyer for the MF Doom estate declined to comment on the settlement on Monday (June 22), and a Temu rep did not immediately return a request for comment.
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MF Doom (Daniel Dumile) died in 2020, leaving his catalog and intellectual property assets to family members. The estate of the late British rapper, operating under the business entity Gas Drawls LLC, sued Temu last summer for trademark infringement.
The lawsuit alleges that the e-commerce platform, whose name derives from the motto “Team Up, Price Down,” is rife with unlicensed t-shirts, hats and posters bearing MF Doom’s name and the iconic mask he would wear while performing. The estate said these Temu products rip off merch from its official online store, but “at a far lower price point and a fraction of the quality.”
In response, Temu argued that it cannot be held liable for the actions of independent, third-party merchants in China who sell their wares through its site. Temu’s lawyers said the company is merely an intermediary, and does not itself make, sell or ship any of the allegedly infringing MF Doom products.
A federal judge initially sided with Temu and dismissed the lawsuit in December, but then changed his mind in February and allowed an amended version of the complaint to move forward into the evidence discovery phase. Discovery was underway when the two sides reached a settlement during a recent mediation session.
Artists and their teams have long used the legal system to crack down on counterfeit merch sales. Historically, these actions have targeted bootleggers themselves, both on the ground at concerts and on the internet.
In the last year, however, artist reps have been trying a new tactic of going after the corporate platforms that host unlicensed merch. Companies like Temu are easier to get a hold of in court than elusive merch sellers, who often operate anonymously, though whether platforms can successfully be held liable for the counterfeiting activities of third-party sellers remains an untested legal theory.
In addition to the MF Doom case, the same lawyer is also representing Twenty One Pilots in a similar lawsuit filed against Temu last year. And in March, Selena Quintanilla sued another Chinese e-commerce platform, Shein, under the same theory. Those two cases remain pending.
